In Jeremiah 25 something that made me pause was the fact that there were so many warnings. “I have spoken to you but you have not listened,” “the Lord has sent you all His servants, the prophets, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear,” “they said repent…yet you have not listened to me.” Therefore, as a result, judgement was coming. God had warned the people of Judah repeatedly. When it comes to listening, there are two choices to make. You can be an active or passive listener. When you are in a conversation it becomes quite clear whether someone is actually listening to you. Are they making follow up comments and asking questions or are they simply nodding and in agreement saying “for sure” when you bring up riding an elephant into church that morning. In my own life I have had to confess when I am passively listening and as a result choosing to ignore. I am thankful that the Lord is always speaking and always faithful. This has made me reflect on how I can choose to be an active listener so that I am not ignoring when God speaks.
Week of 9/27/20 - Pages 201 - 222
Reading Jeremiah is hard. It is full of descriptive, emotional, spiteful and ungodly behavior, from the very people He chose to be the example of a people in right relationship with God. Why are you so upset God? God’s perspective can be found Exodus 20: 1-6. The beginning description of the ten commandments is a cornerstone for understanding God’s words in Jeremiah. It helps me get a glimpse of God’s rage for the behavior, His unmet longings, and also His opening hand for mercy. If you will turn away from your sin, Israel and Judah, I will accept you and be your God.
Jeremiahs call is intimate, “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb… “. Jeremiah’s role had an auspicious start. Is that so much like you and me when it comes to God giving us an assignment!
6 “O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!” 7 The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. 8 And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!” 9 Then the Lord reached out and touched my mouth and said, “Look, I have put my words in your mouth! 10 Today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms. Some you must uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow. Others you must build up and plant.”
I can’t do this I’m too young seems like a reasonable response. Jeremiah has a difficult assignment from a human perspective. To know that your life was going to be about confronting nations, it’s leadership, tearing some nations down and building others up! Those are ’Goliath’ size activities that would make me shudder as a young person. Jeremiah has no track record or knowledge of these things. It must have been overwhelming.
God responds. He will step in and be that voice and protector when things get rough for Jeremiah. God discloses to Jeremiah that his presence, words, strength and power would be behind Jeremiah in all that he did. A foreshadowing of Jesus perhaps? Jeremiah is called to not be afraid while in the upcoming confrontations. Additional information of Jeremiah’s response or mindset is not provided to us about his calling. We know that he did engage in his role from history.
Early in the book of Jeremiah, God builds His case for justifying his action. It is interesting to me how He is remembering the ‘good ole days’ of an Israel that was in fellowship with the Living God.
“I remember how eager you were to please me as a young bride long ago, how you loved me and followed me even through the barren wilderness.3 In those days Israel was holy to the Lord,the first of his children.
Isn’t it true about anything that is ‘new’, in the beginning?
The text change in tone is swift as God rants about all the things “ the families of Israel” did and did not do to be in a worshipful relationship with God. The text is full of woe, tragedy and disappointment. Powerful and painful metaphors are applied to Israel as an ‘unfaithful wife’, adultery, prostituting herself, and divorce are all used to bring these points home. Judah did not learn from the Northern Kingdom’s mistakes. Judah without remorse follows Israel ways and breaks all that God asks for in a relationship with Himself.
God continues with His case for why the powerful armies of the North are being called on to destroy Judah. Israel is already occupied and feeling all the pains, suffering, and struggles of being held captive by a fierce and cruel occupier. Chapters 4-8 tell the story of God’s appeal through Jeremiah to Judah to turn away from their dishonoring lifestyle. Jeremiah gives warnings of God’s impending judgement and makes conditional appeals to extend mercy. Jeremiah deflects every argument of Judah including a provocative one of the presence of the Ark in the temple of Jerusalem. Not a good enough reason. God is left to follow his promise to allow the destruction of the Jerusalem and the end of Judah. Jeremiah weeps for a sinful Judah. I think the heart of God weeps for all that are wayward.
In Jeremiah two Kingdoms refuse to return to a pure, focused worship of God alone as declared in the ten commandments. God is possessive of the worship and service that belong to Him. It is a sin, as God points out in this commandment, to worship or serve anything other than God. By God’s design he desires ALL OF OUR worship and service to Him alone. In this sense our God is a jealous God.
Week of 9/20/20 - Pages 193 - 200
WHY?!
Why doesn’t God DO SOMETHING about all the ______________ I see in this world?
Take a moment to contemplate 2020’s experience thus far, and fill-in-the-blank with one or more answers.
* * *
Perhaps you filled in the blank with responses like these examples:
§ Injustice
§ Wickedness / iniquity
§ Violence / destruction
§ Strife / misery
§ Conflict / divisiveness
Why, indeed!
Although such questions seem particularly relevant in 2020, the example responses above are taken from Habakkuk 1:1-4, written in the 7th century B.C.!
Habakkuk the prophet was bold and transparent in his conversation with God. Disappointment and despair drip from the opening verses, which wrap with a formidable woe: “The wicked far outnumber the righteous!” Perhaps he felt as if the world was closing in on him and others desiring righteousness – desiring God.
* * *
Thankfully, the book of Habakkuk presents a two-way dialogue, with God responding directly to Habakkuk’s challenge. So, shall we read this scripture with special interest? Certainly!
Before we go to God’s response (which is both unexpected and transcendent!), simply be still and reflect on Habakkuk’s questions, to understand what Habakkuk understood. God hears us. He sees us. He knows us…and He desires a deeper relationship with us. Go ahead – ask your “why” questions to God. Whatever you have – he can take it. Anger? Deep disappointment? Epic iniquity? That’s right – he can take all of that. Not only can he take it – he can USE it.
Yes, the God of the universe can use your questions – and your circumstance – for Kingdom purposes.
Now, let’s examine God’s response to Habakkuk’s “why” questions. As it turns out, not only can God use all your questions, He also uses all the ______________ [match your fill-in-the-blank above] in the world as well! God is in control, even when division and chaos appear triumphant!
Take heed! We have clear, direct instruction from our Sovereign Lord.
“Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.”
Habakkuk 2:4
May we be faithful. May we truly trust in God Almighty – not ourselves, not idols and entrapments of this world. May we be counted amongst the righteous, and humbly recognize our place in relationship with God our Savior. May we understand what Habakkuk understood:
“Though the fig tree does not bud, though there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. You, the LORD are my strength! You make me as surefooted as a deer; you make me able to walk on high places!”
Habakkuk 3:17-19
With God in control, and with you humbly pursuing righteousness, on what high places will you tread? What a victorious viewpoint! Amen!
Week of 9/6/20 - Pages 177 - 184
The author of the Book of Zephaniah was a man by the same name, a prophet sent by God to the people of Judah and Jerusalem during a critical time before their exile and destruction by Babylon. God’s purpose for him was to warn and give hope through his prophesy during the reign of King Josiah (640-609 BC), decades before the Babylonian period in Jewish history when the Babylonian armies would invade Judah in 586 BC, destroy Jerusalem, and carry off its people to live in exile as slaves in Babylon. How can we in the year 2020 relate to God’s message through a prophet who lived more than 2,500 years ago on the other side of the world?
Zephaniah came from royal blood because his great-great grandfather was King Hezekiah of Judah so Zephaniah was related to the then-reigning king of Judah (Josiah) in Jerusalem at the time Zephaniah was prophesying. God’s message spoken through Zephaniah’s prophecies warned Josiah to follow God and because he did, the entire country of Judah along with Jerusalem was spared from Babylonian destruction during Josiah’s reign.
However, because of the time period of history he lived in, Zephaniah knew about the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and the exile and slavery of its people by the Assyrians around 720 BC. Zephaniah also knew God’s prophet, Isaiah, had been murdered in Judah around 650 BC during the reign of Zephaniah’s great-grandfather’s brother, Manasseh, who had turned away from God and filled Jerusalem with the blood of innocents.
As a result, Zephaniah knew fear and warned the people of Judah repeatedly in his prophesy about the “Day of the Lord” coming quickly as a day of wrath, trouble, distress, destruction, desolation, darkness, and gloom—a day when the Lord would rise up as a witness against the nations, and the earth would be devoured by the Lord’s fire. It should have come as no surprise to the people in Judah that God would come to judge them since evil abounded everywhere in the land and God’s people like Isaiah were being persecuted. God did come soon thereafter with a vengeance through the Babylonian armies. Likewise, today, in a world where there is religious persecution of the innocents and intense suffering of believers for the sake of Christ, it should not be surprising if God were to intervene on behalf of His people as a modern “Day of the Lord” to execute His judgment.
But Zephaniah also knew of God’s mercy and hope of redemption out of violence and destruction. Although Zephaniah lived hundreds of years before Jesus Christ walked around Jerusalem, through God’s revelation Zephaniah could proclaim God’s deliverance for His people with the “warrior (Jesus) in their midst” to give victory and remove disaster.
For us today living during the year 2020 with the rampaging evils of social injustice and the death toll of the Covid-19 virus pandemic, Zephaniah’s warnings and hope of deliverance remain relevant and ring true-- destruction awaits those who turn away from the Lord but the hope of deliverance continues for those who have faith and trust in the Lord.
So what can we do as we as pray for an end to the current Covid-19 virus and social plagues and for restoration and peace for our world? As believers, we are called to love others as Christ loved us. God has shown us what He requires of us in showing Christ’s love: we are to “seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his commands; seek righteousness, seek humility.” (Zephaniah 2:3). We are to “do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:9);
Week of 8/30/20 Pages 155 - 175
Although it has been believed that the book of Isaiah could have more than one author, I choose to see Isaiah as author. As I read page after page of my assignment, it was clear to me that God's people had turned away from following him and had turned also from the responsibility of being one of God's chosen. The most frightening behavior came in the form of being non repentant. After all, these were his children displaying despicable behavior. How that saddened the Lord which could not be more apparent by the words spoken in these chapters. Such a mix of emotions. The Lord was very disappointed in the people who would come to temple, act pious and then ask where their reward was for acting like this. The people were blasted with Isaiah's reply. They were told their actions were impure, and not for God but for themselves. "Do you really think this will please the Lord?" I get the feeling that Isaiah felt such a strong pull to get these people on the right track that he may have seemed harsh and judgmental to them. Isaiah let them know that this is not what the Lord wanted by telling him what he did want. Be kind to each other. Stand up for those who have no advocates. Share your food and shelter with those in need. God was also described as a God who could forgive and distribute grace to them but they must repent. It was noted that it was their sins that cut them off from God.
As I read on, so many life parallels were made. God was disappointed with his children just as we are with ours at times. And the story of the people's so called sacrifices plainly not sacrifices at all, made me stop and reflect. Have I ever done something for the wrong reason? For self gain thinking I could fool the Lord. Isaiah is a book rich in warning, learning from past mistakes and following the Lord and taking delight in his generous Grace he has daily for us.
Week of 8/23/20 - Pages 135 - 155
This section of Isaiah describes a time in Babylon when the Persian ruler Cyrus is about to conquer the Babylonians and fortunately Cyrus’ policy is to allow exiled populations to return home. Cyrus is the “anointed one” and “whose right hand he will empower.” I, the Lord, “will rise up Cyrus to fulfill my righteous purpose and will guide his actions. He will restore my city and free my captive people - without seeking reward!”
Isaiah is encouraging the people that Babylon will fall and assuring the people. “At just the right time, I will respond to you. On the day of salvation I will help you. I will protect you... Through you I will reestablish the land of Israel and assign it to its own people again.”
Isaiah then foretells of Jesus’ coming. “Yet it was our weakness he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep have strayed away. We have left God’s path to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all”
Isaiah then goes on again to encourage the people by telling them “For the Lord has called you back from your grief... For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will take you back. In a burst of anger I turned my face away for a little while. But with everlasting love I will have compassion on you”. God once again will allow his people to live in “joy and peace”.
Oh what encouragement that must have been for the people who had been exiled from their land and homes, and watched the temple be destroyed along with everything else they had!
Have a blessed week!
Week of 8/16/20 - Pages 116 - 135
We have heard time and time again and we know it in the depths of our hearts, that the Bible is the living word of God. The Bible is our guide to the Living God, our God, who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
In this present time of uncertainty as we face a pandemic that has touched the world and face the injustice for our Black brothers and sisters, there is so much misinformation that causes fear, doubt, and disbelief in truths that we all face. It is clear to me that we are no different, then the people in the book of Isaiah and our present time isn’t anything new to our God. We believe in the Lord, but lack the hope in the truth. Our faith teeters from the overwhelming attacks on our beliefs that get twisted by the enemy. Like this pandemic is real and shedding light that Black Lives Matter. We can be certain that no matter how this world changes around us, we can trust God is consistent. For he is the maker of heaven and earth. Isaiah 40:26-31; verse 26 tells us to look up, so that we can be reminded that if he knows the stars by name, imagine what he knows about you and me, his beloved. When we have doubts, are troubled, feel alone or fall short of His Truth remember our God knows. Thank God for always staying the same and that you can trust He will always be there for you and me, no matter what. Ask Him to help you hold on to His Truth when life looks uncertain. We have been blessed with a God whose word is alive and active. Verse 28 says, “ Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding.” We are assured that even in our weakest moments, when we are weary and just want to crawl under a blanket, the Lord is strong and big enough to carry us through. This is our reminder that even when we stumble badly the Lord is good to those who believe. He restores us and gives us strength to carry on. All we need to do is ask.
Pray even when our faith is as small as a mustard seed. Give grace because it’s by His grace that we are saved. Never lose hope so that we can rejoice in the glory of God. Thank Him for being the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Week of 8/9/20 - Pages 97 - 116
16 Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem,
a firm and tested stone.
It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on.
Whoever believes need never be shaken.
17 I will test you with the measuring line of justice
and the plumb line of righteousness.
Since your refuge is made of lies,
a hailstorm will knock it down.
Since it is made of deception,
a flood will sweep it away.
18 I will cancel the bargain you made to cheat death,
and I will overturn your deal to dodge the grave.
When the terrible enemy sweeps through,
you will be trampled into the ground.
19 Again and again that flood will come,
morning after morning,
day and night,
until you are carried away.”
This message will bring terror to your people.
20 The bed you have made is too short to lie on.
The blankets are too narrow to cover you.
Isaiah 28:16-20
We have all heard the phrase, ‘you’ve made your bed now lay in it,’ this passage of scripture paints a grim picture of being in a bed that is not sufficient. Years ago, as a young mother, from time to time, I would find myself cuddled up with my son in his toddler bed. The bed was way too short even for a person like me who stands a proud 5’ tall. As you can imagine, it wasn’t a comfortable place to be. I could never truly rest peacefully. I found that I could lay in it and be reasonably satisfied as long as nothing disturbed me. The slightest movement of a small foot or a room temperature change would cause me to become unstable. I have found the same to be true when I build my comfort and belief system around something other than Christ himself.
This year, 2020, has disturbed many of the beds we sought to place our comfort. We’ve had to evaluate the stability of our health concerns, finances, ideas of race relations, and openness to other people’s life experiences. For many, when tested, the bed of one or more of these areas is not long enough, and the covering is too narrow. The great news is that we do not have to just lay in the bed we’ve made with God. He has already placed His foundation stone. Jesus, the cornerstone, we can build on safely. His foundation will not be shaken. Halfway through this eventful year, if we find those areas of instability, we have a choice. To settle back into the bed we have made for ourselves, finding comfort in slight warmth we’ve developed from our time spent in that position, or we can make the uncomfortable move to a bed that was loving built for us on a tested and stable foundation.
Week of 8/2/20 - Pages 76 - 97
My uncle in 2008 used the term “unprecedented times” and honestly I wasn’t in a position then to really understand what he meant.
Fast-forward 12 years and a pandemic later I now understand “unprecedented times”. No where ever did anyone see that the world could or would stop. But is has. Governments, companies, schools and people thought that their lives would continue on as status quo. The world stopped. People died. People scrambled.
This is much how I see Isaiah (Prophets pages 76-97). People became full of themselves and their abilities. Moving in the world as if they are untouchable. God has used people and circumstances since the beginning of time to get their attention. “Get God on the Whisper” is something I have told my kids since they were little.
The upside of a pandemic is that in many ways we have had to slow down. No commuting to work, racing to children’s sports or social commitments. Many of us have been giving the gift of time.
Time to be still and listen.
Lean in.
Closer.
He is whispering to you.
Can you hear him?
Isaiah 25:1 “Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things you have planned long ago.
Week of 7/26/20 - Pages 55 - 75
Birth announcements are wonderful ways of sharing and spreading joy. In this week’s reading, we see that the prophet Isaiah announces the arrival of a child.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.
(Isaiah 9:6-7)
Isaiah’s birth announcement tells us that this baby boy will be given four distinct titles and these titles describe what the baby will do. He will be a “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Furthermore, Isaiah promises that this baby will be born on the basis of God’s own passionate commitment to fulfilling his purposes for his people: “The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” And Isaiah was right. God did deliver on this promise. Seven hundred years later Jesus was born and fulfilled every promise announced. God came among us in the person of Jesus. We live in a world that is broken and hurting. Now more than ever we need the reminder that Jesus is the one who gives wisdom and counsel, He is the one who is mighty and powerful, He is the one who is unchanging and eternal and He is the only one who gives a deep and lasting peace.